Get Ready For The Fiscal Cliff

Excerpt

“Sequestration itself is a poor means for deficit reduction,” said Josh Gordon, policy director at The Concord Coalition, an Arlington, Va.-based nonpartisan nonprofit. “It’s stupid in the sense that spending cuts are indiscriminate. That’s not the way we should be budgeting and reducing the deficit,” he said.

Gordon said there could be some work done in the lame duck session between Election Day and the end of the year, or Congress could temporarily extend things until the next president and Congress take office.

The Concord Coalition is not opposed to deficit reduction, though too much too soon would be problematic for the economy, said Gordon. The coalition prefers reductions in target areas of the budget predicted to grow the most in the future. Gordon pointed out that no cuts are scheduled to Medicaid and food stamps and Medicare is limited to a 2-percent cut and only targeted at providers, while Social Security also goes untouched.